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24
SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2011
SFF.ORG.AU
FIRE ME UP
25
SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2011
FIRE ME UP
SFF.ORG.AU
FIRE ME UPFuelthefiresofcontroversyor
gear up for some high-octane
action – these films will get your
adrenalin pumping. Whether
its debate and division or daring
exploits that get your juices
flowing, look no further...
‘Features one of the
best final battle
sequences ever filmed.’
SCREENRANT ON 13 ASSASSINS
SPONSORED BY:
SUN 12 JUN 8.30PM DOQ2
SUN 19 JUN 8.30PM EV9
Japan, UK | 126 mins | In Japanese with English subtitles
Director: Miike Takashi | Screenwriter: Daisuke Tengen
| Producers: Michihiko Umezawa, Minami Ichikawa,
Toichiro Shiraishi, Takahiro Ohno, Hirotsugu Yoshida,
Masaaki Ujo | Cast: Kôji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada,
Yûsuke Iseya | Distributor: Icon Films Distribution
Prolific Japanese movie maverick Miike Takashi
shifts gears from his usual hyper-violent style with
this classy remake of Eiichi Kudo’s 1963 film, set
in the twilight of Japan’s feudal era. The sadistic
brother of the Shogun, Lord Naritsugu, satisfies his
bloodlust by brutally terrorising the people and gets
away with it because of his political connections.
Master samurai Shinzaemon Shimada (Kôji Yakusho
of Tokyo Sonata, SFF 2008) is summoned to
assassinate him and is pitted against his old friend
and sparring partner Hanbei who now leads the evil
Nartisugu’s personal army and must rigidly observe
the samurai code regardless of his own principles.
Shinzaemon bands together a motley crew of 12
men and begins to plan a complicated ambush. The
meticulously designed slow-burn set up ultimately
leads to a breathtaking 45-minute battle sequence
that combines the mastery of Akira Kurosawa with
the in-your-face excesses of Quentin Tarantino – and
yes, the blood does flow! CS•
13 ASSASSINS
JÛSAN-NIN NO SHIKAKU
FRI 10 JUN 12.10PM EV4
FRI 17 JUN 6.15PM DOQ2
Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, UK, Germany, Slovenia,
Belgium | 113 mins | In Bosnian with English subtitles
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
Director: Danis Tanović | Screenwriters: Danis Tanović,
Ivica Đikić | Producers: Čedomir Kolar, Amra Bakšić Čamo,
Marc Bachet, Mirsad Purivatra | Cast: Miki Manojlović,
Boris Ler, Miki Manojlović | Sales Agent: The Match Factory
Following a two-decade exile in Germany,
determined Divko Buntić (Miki Manojlović)
returns to his small hometown in Herzogovina with
young girlfriend Azra (Jelena Stupljanin), black cat
Bonny in tow and revenge on his mind. In short
order he has wife Lucija (Mira Furlan) and grown
son Martin (Boris Ler) evicted from his house, and
that’s just the beginning. But it is 1991, and while
the Communists are vanquished, the clouds of
war are gathering in what is soon to be the former
Yugoslavia. Few filmmakers hone the sharp edge
between drama and satire with the determined
compassion of Danis Tanović, whose first film,
the Academy Award®-winning No Man’s Land,
perfectly captured the insanity of armed conflict.
Cirkus Columbia is also a showcase for the versatile
Manojlović, who has grown from the cult 1975
Yugoslavian TV series Strawberries in the Throat to
prominence throughout Europe as Serbia’s answer to
Walter Matthau. CS•
CIRKUS COLUMBIA
MON 13 JUN 3.30PM EV9
THU 16 JUN 9.15PM STATE
Brazil | 116 mins | In Portuguese with English subtitles
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
Director: José Padilha | Screenwriters: José Padilha, Bráulio
Mantovani, Rodrigo Pimentel | Producers: José Padilha,
Marcos Prado | Cast: Wagner Moura, Irandhir Santos, André
Ramiro | Distributor: Madman Entertainment
Now the highest-grossing Brazilian film of all time,
José Padilha’s (Bus 174, SFF 2003) high-octane
follow-up to his controversial 2008 Berlin Film
Festival-winner Elite Squad (SFF 2008) is also a nail-
biting standalone thriller drawn straight from the
headline news. More than a decade has passed and
Nascimento (Wagner Moura) has been promoted
from captain of BOPE – the rapid military police
who shoot first and don’t give a damn about
questions – to Chief of Rio’s intelligence bureau.
His ex-wife is remarried to ambitious human rights
advocate Fraga, and his relationship with his teenage
son is faltering. In a narrative move that reflects the
popular TV series The Wire, the professional and
personal changes in the life of Nascimento broaden
the perspective of the original film, shifting the focus
from the drug wars in the favelas to police vice and
political corruption, making for a film that is just as
relentlessly paced as its predecessor and dramatically
even richer. CS•
ELITE SQUAD: THE ENEMY WITHIN
TROPA DE ELITE 2: O INIMIGO AGORA É OUTRO
SAT 11 JUN 8.45PM STATE
TUE 14 JUN 5.25PM EV4
Spain, France, Mexico | 104 mins | In Spanish with
English subtitles
Director: Icíar Bollaín | Screenwriter: Paul Laverty |
Producers: Juan Gordon, Eric Altmayer, Monica Lozano,
Emma Lustres | Cast: Gael García Bernal, Luis Tosar, Juan
Carlos Aduviri | Sales Agent: Wild Bunch International
Gael García Bernal (Amores perros) stars as film
director Sebastian who, along with his hard-nosed
producer Costa (Luis Tosar), sets out to make
a revisionist drama about the Spanish conquest
of the Americas. Costa has decided to shoot in
Bolivia, because it’s the cheapest place in South
America. Sebastian casts a local man, Daniel, as
the Taíno chieftain who led a rebellion against the
Spaniards. Unbeknownst to the director, Daniel is
leading his community’s demonstrations against
the government’s decision to privatise water. As
the filming progresses, the two stories – the 1512
rebellion and the twenty-first-century riots – cleverly
serve to underline the impact of colonialism on
the New World and the continuing exploitation
of its resources by outsiders. This engrossing and
multi-layered film-within-a-film is scripted by Ken
Loach-collaborator Paul Laverty (Looking for Eric –
SFF 2009, The Wind That Shakes the Barley – SFF
2006) and directed by Icíar Bollaín (Take My Eyes,
SFF 2004). JN•
Audience Award, Berlin Film Festival
EVEN THE RAIN
TAMBIÉN LA LLUVIA
Elite Squad: The Enemy Within
FRI 10 JUN 9.15PM STATE
SAT 18 JUN 4.15PM EV9
USA | 90 mins | In English
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
Director: Morgan Spurlock | Screenwriters: Jeremy Chilnick,
Morgan Spurlock | Producers: Jeremy Chilnick, Abbie
Hurewitz, Morgan Spurlock, Keith Calder, Jessica Wu | Cast:
Morgan Spurlock | Distributor: Madman Entertainment
Brand Morgan Spurlock: provocative, loud and in
your face. Who in the sensitive world of corporate
and product marketeering would want to align
themselves with the values of the filmmaker who
decimated McDonald’s (Super Size Me) and whose
performative approach to investigative journalism
makes everybody twitchy? That’s exactly what the
inimitable Spurlock sets out to establish in this
riveting documentary that lays bare the lucrative
and ubiquitous business of product placement,
advertising and brand promotion in the film
industry. Endeavouring to finance his film using
the very same mechanisms he sets out to critique
–
Spurlock literally starts ‘living the brand’ as each
product signs up – the super salesman occasionally
frets about selling out whilst juggling the frequently
conflicting interests of his growing list of sponsors
and masterminding the production and campaign
for the world’s first ‘docbuster’. Funny, audacious
and smart, the film’s bigger question – is everything
for sale? – continues to resonate well beyond the
work itself. CS•
POM WONDERFUL PRESENTS: THE
GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD
SUN 19 JUN 12.45PM STATE
RATED M
UK | 104 mins | In English, Portuguese, French, Italian
with English subtitles
Director: Asif Kapadia | Screenwriter: Manish Pandey
| Producer: James Gay-Rees, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner |
Distributor: NBC Universal
Buckle up for an adrenalin-fuelled ride in this
documentary about three-time Formula One
World Champion and Brazilian hero Ayrton
Senna. Working exclusively with archival material,
director Asif Kapadia delivers a thrilling account of
Senna’s racing career, from his go-cart start in Brazil,
through his intense professional rivalry with onetime
teammate Alain Prost and his halcyon days with
Williams Renault, to his tragic, untimely demise.
This is a doco that goes way beyond armchair
appreciation of racing. Senna’s complex character
–
his faith, paranoias and prophesies, along with
his clash with then-President of Formula One Jean-
Marie Balestre, makes compelling drama. Superb
in its handling of material that reveals Senna’s ego
and insinuates corruption within Forumula One,
the editing by Chris King and Gregers Sall is also a
perfect visceral match for on-board camera footage
that will leave you breathless – and gripping the
sides of your seats! CS•
World Cinema Audience Award (Documentary),
Sundance Film Festival
SENNA
SUN 12 JUN 5.10PM STATE
THU 16 JUN 12.15PM EV4
USA | 87 mins | In English
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
Director: Errol Morris | Producer: Julie Bilson Ahlberg,
Mark Lipson | Sales Agent: Submarine Entertainment
Documentary maestro Errol Morris – director of
award-winning films such as The Thin Blue Line
(SFF 1989); Mr Death (SFF 2000) and Standard
Operating Procedure (SFF 2008) – has described
his latest work as “my first love story since Gates
of Heaven.” His subject is Joyce McKinney, the
former Miss Wyoming whose relentless pursuit of
the man of her dreams triggered a 70s tabloid war.
The object of her affection was Kirk Anderson, a
Mormon missionary who attempted to evade the
young beauty’s charms by moving to Surrey in
England. McKinney, however, tracked him down
and, according to Kirk, kidnapped him at gunpoint,
chained him to a bed and forced him to have sex.
‘The Case of the Manacled Mormon’ was a headline
made in heaven for the UK’s tabloid press. Morris
relishes the bizarre, often laugh-out-loud details of
McKinney’s story – just wait until you hear about
the dog named Booger! JN•
TABLOID